Rita of Cascia

Life events

1. Born — 1381

   Margherita Ferri Lotti was born in Roccaporena, a hamlet near Cascia in Umbria. Her parents, Antonio and Amata Ferri Lotti, were locally known for charitable works and carried the epithet Conciliatori di Cristo (Peacemakers of Christ).

2. Other — 1399

   Rita married Paolo di Ferdinando di Mancino; the marriage is described as lasting 18 years, during which she was widowed after Paolo was murdered in a family vendetta. She publicly pardoned her husband's murderers at his funeral.

3. Other

   Following her husband's murder, Rita's two sons, Giangiacomo and Paolo Maria, died of dysentery while still young. According to the 18th-century hagiographer Carlo Massini, Rita had prayed that God would take her sons rather than allow them to be drawn into mortal sin through vendetta.

4. Tonsured — 1417

   After reconciling the rival families of Cascia — a condition set by the monastery — Rita was admitted to the convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Cascia at approximately age 36 and began monastic life under the Augustinian Rule.

5. Other — 1441

   Around age 60, while meditating before an image of Christ crucified, a wound appeared on Rita's forehead as though from a thorn of the crown of thorns. She carried this partial stigma until her death in 1457.

6. Died — 1457

   Rita died on 22 May 1457 in the convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Cascia from tuberculosis, after approximately 40 years of monastic life. Her body was found incorrupt on subsequent exhumations.

7. Other — 1626

   Pope Urban VIII beatified Rita in 1626. Much of the momentum behind her cult is attributed to Fausto Poli, the pope's private secretary, who had been born approximately 15 km from her birthplace in Roccaporena.

8. Other — 1900

   Pope Leo XIII canonized Rita on 24 May 1900 and bestowed upon her the title Patroness of Impossible Causes. The three miracles certified for her canonization included the incorruption of her body, a cure of smallpox, and the sudden recovery of sight of Elizabeth Bergamini at the Cascia convent.

Relationships

Documented claims

• At her canonization in 1900, Pope Leo XIII bestowed upon Rita the formal title Patroness of Impossible Causes. She shares this informal reputation with St. Jude and St. Philomena. (certain)
• Rita's body was exhumed three times after her 1457 death and found incorrupt on each occasion, with her forehead stigma wound still visible. Her remains are enshrined in the Basilica of Santa Rita in Cascia. (plausible)
• The first biography of Rita was written by Augustinian Father Agostino Cavallucci of Foligno, based on oral tradition, and published in 1610 by Matteo Florimi in Siena — more than 150 years after her death and 16 years before her beatification. (likely)
• According to tradition, near the end of Rita's life a single rose bloomed in January at her family home in Roccaporena when a visiting cousin asked what she desired. Blessed roses are now distributed at churches on her feast day, 22 May. (legendary)
• Rita invoked three patron saints — John the Baptist, Augustine of Hippo, and Nicholas of Tolentino — when the Cascia monastery required her to reconcile the feuding families as a precondition for her admission as a nun. (plausible)